The present invention relates to a printer apparatus, and particularly relates to a printer apparatus using an ultrasonic motor for driving a printing head unit.
Recently, down-sizing of electronic instruments has been required in the information processing field, hence the printer apparatus also needs to have a compact size, a light weight and a good portability as an output instrument. In this regard, research and development have been conducted to reduce the size and weight of components. However, down-sizing of existing components has been limited.
Conventionally, a compact printer apparatus uses one or plural stepping motors or else for driving a printing head carrier and feeding a record paper medium. Particularly, with regard to the driving of the printing head, generally a rotational movement of the motor is converted into a linear movement by means of a timing belt or a lead screw.
Namely, in the prior art, the stepping motor is utilized for driving the printing head so that various components, such as the timing belt and the lead screw, are indispensable, thereby increasing a number of components. Further, the size of the stepping motor is not reduced extremely because a given driving torque should be maintained. Therefore, it is quite difficult to effect further down-sizing by simply compacting the existing components.